Homeric Hymns, Epigrams, and The Battle of Frogs and Mice

Homeric Hymns are thirty-three poems each paying homage to a certain Greek god. Only a few of the poems are more than 250 lines while the rest are about a dozen lines each. They are written in Homeric style and traditionally attributed to Homer but their true provenance is unknown. The Epigrams are a series of fragments on disparate topics including sailors, children and potters and are similarly attributed to Homer although it appears Hesiod and others wrote some of them. Finally, Battle of Frogs and Mice is a light-weight parody -- literally, at one-fiftieth the number of lines -- of Homer's famous battle of Greeks and Trojans epic, Illiad.

First Page:

HESIOD, THE HOMERIC HYMNS, AND HOMERICA

This file contains translations of the following works:

Hesiod: "Works and Days", "The Theogony", fragments of "The Catalogues
of Women and the Eoiae", "The Shield of Heracles" (attributed to
Hesiod), and fragments of various works attributed to Hesiod.

Homer: "The Homeric Hymns", "The Epigrams of Homer" (both attributed to
Homer).

Various: Fragments of the Epic Cycle (parts of which are sometimes
attributed to Homer), fragments of other epic poems attributed to Homer,
"The Battle of Frogs and Mice", and "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod".

This file contains only that portion of the book in English; Greek texts
are excluded. Where Greek characters appear in the original English
text, transcription in CAPITALS is substituted.

PREPARER'S NOTE: In order to make this file more accessible to the
average computer user, the preparer has found it necessary to re arrange
some of the material. The preparer takes full responsibility for his
choice of arrangement.

A few endnotes have been added by the preparer, and some additions have
been supplied to the original endnotes of Mr... Continue reading book >>